Moonshadow
by Callisto Star
Summary: [One Shot] He feared the Moon; she treasured it. Yet her memory is one of the dearest in his heart... (rare Usa/Lupin!) My first HP/SM, *please* R & R!


AN: I was inspired one day and realized what a unique but perfect couple Usagi and Lupin would make. This is the result of that inspiration. Again, this is only a one-shot. There will not be a sequel, but it is likely that this will become the prologue/intro to my coming epic HP/SM fic. We'll see what the reviewers think...

This takes part takes place during Prisoner of Azkaban, so Sirius has no yet been redeemed. I own nothing but my ideas (and the title came to me from the Cat Stevens song by the same name). "..." is talking, '...' is thought, [...] is AN or definition, (...) is extra info but part of the fic, ... means trailed off, -- means interrupted. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy...

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The halls of Hogwarts bustled with excitement about the next day's Quidditch match as the students thronged towards their common rooms for some pre-game festivities. Patiently, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher worked his way toward his office, against the crowd. With a sigh, he finally reached the door and let himself in.

Turning with a sad look in his eyes, he pushed it shut and locked it. It would be a long night. The potion waited, smoking, on his desk. As he approached the goblet, he also noticed a note in Snape's haphazard handwriting and skimmed it with his eyes:

_"As Dumbledore requested, here is your potion. Drink one FULL goblet once a day (preferably at dusk) while the full moon lasts. I will deliver some each day. It will render you harmless as a wolf, but it would be wise to lock your door so that certain pestering students do not disturb you._

_~S. Snape"_

Remus scoffed at Snape's advice. Did he think he had no experience with concealing himself? With a sigh, he dropped the note and picked up the steaming goblet. A look of disgust graced his face at the rancid odor. Then he glanced up at the small window and the moonlight of the almost-full gibbous streaming through. 'Better safe then sorry,' he thought grimly. Trying not to inhale the odor, he tilted back his head and drained the goblet.

He set it down and waited for something to happen. 'Of course it won't be immediate,' he scolded himself. The results would not be felt until the Change began.

Glancing down at his desk, his eyes rested on the morning's Daily Prophet illuminated by a moonbeam. Staring back at him was the frightening picture of the dangerous fugitive Sirius Black, escapee from Azkaban.

'Padfoot, old friend,' thought Moony sadly as he felt the Change begin inside him. 'How could you? How could you change so much? How could you betray Prongs like that? How could you betray all of us?'

Hair began to sprout all over Remus' body as he curled up into a ball on his office chair. He felt as if his insides were twisting apart. Apparently, the potion made him harmless but did not relieve much of the pain. He gritted his teeth together and refused to allow himself to scream... er, howl... in agony.

With pained eyes, he glanced at Black's picture again. The loneliness that usually accompanies a werewolf came flooding back to the former Marauder. How he wished for his friends, his fellow companions that eased the pain as they accompanied him in their animal forms. Poor Prongs, James, betrayed by his former best friend and killed by a monstrous dark wizard. And Wormtail, Peter, the cowardly companion that finally amassed enough courage to stand up to the traitor to be murdered himself. And Padfoot... 

Moony still refused to believe that Sirius would do such a thing.

Instead, his thoughts drifted even further back. He found himself wandering through the halls of his memory long before his fifth year. Before they ever became Animagi, before he had ever met his amazing friends. When he first came to Hogwarts, timid and friendless because of what he was, and that single girl that brightened his darkness.

Remus smiled despite his pain.

He met her on the train, before even entering Hogwarts. Remus had timidly seated himself alone in the last compartment, not daring to approach the other students. She had been late, as usual, and with no other seats available, cheerfully joined him.

She was the first to accept him, Remus clearly remembered. Of course, he had immediately identified himself as a werewolf to the girl as she sat down, as was required by some strange law at the time, (which was not widely followed by other werewolves, so it was later abolished).

But unlike most people, her face did not scrunch into a look of disgust. Instead, her eyes and her entire face lit up. "Wow!" she had cried eagerly. "Then you must be really associated with magic! What's it like," she asked eagerly, "to be so closely related to the Moon?"

He had frowned, Remus remembered. "It's horrible," he had said.

Then her face had scrunched up. "Horrible? But the Moon is so beautiful. It's so full of light and joy and wonder..."

Remus remembered how she had always been fascinated with the moon. With her silvery-blond hair, he had sometimes wondered if she herself was somehow associated with the moon. But not in the way he was. Not as a moon demon, but as a moon angel.

With a gasp of pain, he returned to the present. The Change was almost over, but now came the hardest and most painful part as he became truly wolf. With a cry, he attempted to immerse himself in memories once more. He grasped onto the image of her face and held onto it tightly, as he had so many years before.

She had been the first to accept him, his first friend. To his relief, she had been sorted into Gryffindor with him. She provided a light for the lonely days of his first year, always brightening his sorrow with her lively mood.

Remus knew he owed so much to her. It was she that had introduced him to the very popular James Potter and Sirius Black, his fellow first year Gryffindors. [AN: FYI, they had a bigger class that year with much more than five Gryffie boys, so in the early weeks of school James and Sirius didn't know Remus too well.] She convinced the boys of the great person he was despite _what_ he was and helped forge that amazing friendship that eventually led to the infamous Marauders. And even then, when she was not included in the quartet of mischief-makers, she and Lily Evans with their spunky outrageous courage could rival the foursome or add to their fun.

With a final sigh that came out like a snarl, Remus felt the Change complete itself. He lay curled up on his office chair, completely exhausted but at least not a monster. He was weaker than usual, but he was himself, retaining his own human mind. 

With a sad smile of gratitude, he thanked her name and her memory once more for getting him through the painful process. Slowly, he reached his furry claw inside the neck of his shirt and extracted something on a chain.

His eyes were pained as they looked at the golden thing he held in his paw, not from physical hurt but from emotional memories. 

It was a star-shape suspended on a golden chain, the gold glowing softly in the dim silvery light. With a soft cry, he flipped it open.

It had been her graduation present to him. As they had prepared to leave the magical halls forever, she had pressed the thing into his palm. "So that you may not fear the Orb," she whispered as she walked by, "but treasure it for the great celestial being it is."

A soft light illuminated Moony's furry face as the little crescent rotated and her favorite song began to play. An old snapshot fell onto his lap. There they were in at the end their seventh year, smiling and waving happily as if they hadn't a care in the world (except perhaps the N.E.W.T.s). Trying to swallow his pain, Remus struggled to remember when he had last felt so carefree and happy.

'That long ago,' he thought sadly at he looked at the younger image of himself waving sheepishly with the energetic moon angel at his side. 'Before Wormtail's death and Padfoot's imprisonment. Before Prongs and Lily were murdered. Before I had to run and hide from the Dark Lord. Before Voldemort rose to power and...' His throat closed up. 'Before she was taken away. Before she refused to submit and stood against him and...'

Even in wolf form, Remus could no longer hold back the emotional pain. A tear streaked down his furry cheek and landed on the smooth gold of the locket as he fingered the engraved name underneath: _Usagi Tsukino._

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AN: Short, but hopefully not too short. Hope you liked it, because I certainly did. Review and let me know what you think, and we shall see... ::winks::

Thanks! Ja minna-chan!

~Calli-chan


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